It is not spin. It is not hyperbole. It is on page 16 of the bill.
From IBD.
It didn't take long to run into an "uh-oh" moment when reading the House's "health care for all Americans" bill. Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal.
When we first saw the paragraph Tuesday, just after the 1,018-page document was released, we thought we surely must be misreading it. So we sought help from the House Ways and Means Committee.
It turns out we were right: The provision would indeed outlaw individual private coverage. Under the Orwellian header of "Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage," the "Limitation On New Enrollment" section of the bill clearly states:
"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day" of the year the legislation becomes law.
So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised — with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won't be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.
So the Marxists in the Congress and the White House are officially trying to kill an industry and our freedom to purchase whatever insurance we choose for our families. There is not only no precedent for this in a free society, there is no Constitutional authority.
Washington does not have the constitutional or moral authority to outlaw private markets in which parties voluntarily participate. It shouldn't be killing business opportunities, or limiting choices, or legislating major changes in Americans' lives.
It took just 16 pages of reading to find this naked attempt by the political powers to increase their reach. It's scary to think how many more breaches of liberty we'll come across in the final 1,002.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record: These people are monsters and must be stopped. They are hacking at our necks with broadswords and we are just sitting here letting them do it. I hate to say it, but maybe we can't wait for 2010 to throw them out. It may be time for impeachments and recall elections.
The only saving grace may be that as these atrocities are aired, it makes it more likely that they will not pass. And then, my friends, it will be time to empty your wallets and buy a nice pair of campaign volunteer walking shoes to make the midterms such a bloodbath for the Democrats they will need guided (and guarded) tours of the Capitol to remember what it looked like.
Comments
The whole point of being able to provide high quality health insurance at an affordable price is creating a large risk pool. That's why it's important to get everyone participating in it, including young people who often do not carry health insurance. The health insurance government employees get is far superior to most employer-sponsored private insurance and certainly better than any private insurance you can buy, which is lower quality and much more expensive. Many specialists don't even accept Aetna and you have to pay them directly or go to a lower-quality doctor. The current system is not working.
Before you have a knee-jerk conservative reaction, you should study the whole issue of health insurance, especially escalating costs and access problems.
Mona, Socialized medicine does not and has not worked without rationing health and refusal of procedures. If we copy models of failure we are destined to fail. Fix the problems first and foremost. Govt is grabbing power, not fixing problems. Urgent care clinics or physicians at pharmacies would be a start, cleaning out the ERs for their intended purpose. Stop the frivolous lawsuits requiring doctors to pay high premiums for malpractice ins. Bill home nations for Illegal's care - not the taxpayers.
Model healthcare after Shriners Hospitals for Children. They have worked for over 80 years on donations alone! They continue to give the best at no financial obligation to the families! We need govt to look at experience - not take our money, toss it in the air for grabs and hope if falls together!
WOULD YOU TAKE YOUR CAR TO THE SAME GUY TO REPAIR IT IF HE KEPT SCREWING YOU OVER????
DO YOU LOOK BOTH WAYS BEFORE CROSSING THE STREET???
Please, America, wake up.
Actually, before condescending, maybe you should study a little about law and economics and recognize that when you remove free-market incentives you get an inferior product. It is just that simple and it applies to health care. We have a free market health care system and it is the best in the world (other than the parts the government runs, which are failures). Nobody else has it, and they all come here to get treated. Use your head. We will have worse care, at a higher price, our quality of life will diminish, and the government, not your doctor, will tell you what medical coverage you will get. Also let's not forget that this will kill any incentive for people to become doctors. Ours is better simply because it is not Socialized. Socialize it, and we are done. None of this is new. It has all failed where it has been tried and since you liberals are too blind to see it, you will all have to be punished at the ballot box.
My comment was for Mona, not Stephanie, the latter of whom is a sharp cookie.
"We have a free market health care system and it is the best in the world (other than the parts the government runs, which are failures). "
Let's see. We pay more for healthcare than anyone in the world. We insure fewer people than any industrialized nation. And we have worse outcomes than any industrialized country.
Wow.
As for Govt involvement being such a failure--95% of all breakthrough drugs are developed by the Government or by Government-funded labs. Private industry contributes very little (except "me too" drugs)in the way of original drug therapies. The same holds true for medical technologies.
I think Captain Kiid needs to stop reading the witchcraft from the left.
1) We pay more...and get the best service in the world. Just ask that hip replacement patient that's been waiting for years in Canada or Europe. "Paying less" doesn't mean paying fewer dollars! Cue oppressive tax increases.
2) Insuring fewer people...how many are uninsured by their own choice? And you can't count the 15 million or so ILLEGALS.
3) Worse outcomes...that's just a flat out lie. If it's so bad here, how come something as treatable as swine flu is taking lives abroad? Oh, and might I add those countries have what? Everybody now: GOV'T RAN HEALTH CARE PLANS!!!
Obama is a menace, a radical, hell-bent to destroy this country. Gov't healthcare creates dependants. He wants DC to control every little, tiny aspect of our lives. Our Constitution clearly states this is not allowed in America. 230-odd years ago the same thing happened. There was a revolution. There will be another one.
PJ:
Your hip replacement stories are apocryphal. In this country, you're probably going to wait at least 6 months for that hip replacement as well. That is--if you're insured. At least in Canada or Europe, you know you'll get one.
Re illegals, if you removed all illegals from the equation, healthcare costs would not be affected because they represent such a small segment of the uninsured.
Yes, worse outcomes. We have a lower life expectancy. We're no. 45 in the world in terms of life expectancy.
PJ, it is clear that Captain Kidd has been hanging out with Captain Morgan. He is utterly incorrect, and never even addresses the point of the post, i.e., the breathtaking move to outlaw private health insurance illegal. Anybody who agrees with that does us a favor by identifying themselves as the Commies they are. Yep, I said Commies, Captain.
The House bill does not make private health insurance illegal.
The bill does add various legal requirements for health insurance, for example, that they not withhold coverage from individuals with pre-existing conditions. Instead of simply immediately requiring that all insurers change their structures and conditions, the bill allows existing coverage schemes to be grandfathered in.
Thus, if you already have an individual plan that excludes people with pre-existing conditions, you can keep that plan. But new enrollees cannot choose that plan. New enrollees can enroll in individual plans, but they will have to meet the new requirements.
In short, the editorial is, at best, extremely misleading.
Whatever you do, don't bother to let the facts get in the way of a good fear-mongering rumor!
Great editorial, Bill. I love distorting facts and scaring the livin' daylights out of people too. You don't have to know nothin' and can still influence the other dummies in this country. I didn't flunk all my college courses for nothin. Yeah USA!
Some of you who get scared easily need to stop reading people's online opinions of what legal bills actually say. I'm fairly certain that nobody called any House Committee to verify this, for they would have responded, read page 14 and 15, where it spells out what page 16 means.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not for this bill either, but let's not be ignorant about it.
Read this.
www.rense.com/general83/reese.htm
545 vs 300,000,000
I HAVE TO AGREE WITH USMCRICH82, READ THE STORY LEADING INTO THE STORY. GET ALL THE FACTS RIGHT, THEN PUT IT OUT THERE FOR EVERYONE TO READ.
I CAN'T SPEAK FOR PRIVATE INSURANCE AS I'M ON SOC. SEC. DISABILITY AND WAITING PRAYERFULLY FOR A LIVER TRANSPLANT. NO, I DID NOT GET CIRRHOSIS FROM DRINKING, I CONTRACTED TWO TYPES OF HEPATITUS, HEP. B FROM VOLUNTEERING FOR A SERUM PROGRAM IN 1974 WHEN I WAS 19 AND WANTED TO "HELP SAVE THE WORLD". THEN I CONTRACTED HEP. C FROM BAD BLOOD IN A TRANSFUSION SOMETIME BETWEEN 1987 AND 1990 WHEN I HAD 3 MAJOR SPINAL OPERATIONS DUE TO A SEMI TRUCK CRASH I GOT INTO. ONLY ONE INVOLVED,AND I THANK GOD DAILY FOR THAT. ANYWAY I'M NOT, NOR HAVE I EVER BEEN A DRUNK. JUST ONE CASE OF GOOD LUCK AFTER ANOTHER,LOL.
SO, READ EVERYTHING BEFORE YOU GET THE NATIVES UP IN ARMS, IT'S BAD ENOUGH THAT OUR PRESIDENT CAN'T PROVE HIS BIRTHPLACE, AND THAT HE TRAVELS THE GLOBE APOLOGIZING FOR THE THINGS OUR COUNTRY IS INVOLVED IN. A TRUE AMERICAN WOULD NEVER DO SUCH A THING.
Either way the private medical service sector will wither because of this bill...We have been lied to too many times...We the American People need to be up in arms...When is enough going to be enough. Things are out of control. We should not give up Free-Market solutions and take away the power lust from those in power.
I meant to say we need to take away the power lust from those in power...They are not gods...Instead Free-Market solutions are there for the taking but will the bureaucrat be able to let go of their power and false notions of controlling healthcare decisions.
SEC. 104. PROHIBITION AGAINST DUPLICATING COVERAGE.
(a) In General- It is unlawful for a private health insurer to sell health insurance coverage that duplicates the benefits provided under this Act.
(b) Construction- Nothing in this Act shall be construed as prohibiting the sale of health insurance coverage for any additional benefits not covered by this Act, such as for cosmetic surgery or other services and items that are not medically necessary.
not sure what doesn't seem clear in that. Since it is illegal for "private health insurer[s] to sell health insurance coverage that duplicates the benefits provided under" this bill.
Smells like Communism to me. But it is ok. I'll laugh in their faces when it fails.
In addition it says that private institutions can not be owned? WHAT? Did I hear that correctly?
This is illegal... goes against the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act...How is this president going around this? Well I wouldn't be surprised, if he won't release what is public documents... then why expect more from him...
Capitain Kidd. Life expectancy is due to stress. Look at working hours of other countries and then compare it.
Actually privately funded health insurance increases competition. With competition comes better outcomes. A monopoly over health insurance will create what? --> yes, that is right CRAPPY CARE. Simple as that.. Have we not learned anything from the late 1800s?
Pither, the bill, although does not make private insurance illegal, it severely takes away from it. Whatever coverage the gov't provides can not be supplied by private insurances. So under this Bill, private insurances are only allowed to do cosmetic surgery (not sure if reconstructive surgery counts, cuz that is necessary sometimes) and laser vision correction. And if you wanted that, the gov't wouldn't provide it either. See the problem in that? However, you are right private insurance companies are not illegal, they just can't do anything except for suck fat out of a behind.
To really know how good this program will be is if the Executive and Legislative branch are A PART OF IT and still NOT ON A BETTER PLAN.
I urge EVERYONE, to write your 3 reps to DEMAND they and their families be on the same plan they will force us into.
NO EXCEPTIONS FOR CONGRESS!!!!
You should actually read the document. The text is defining what "GRANDFATHERED HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE" is. It does nothing to make private health coverage illegal.
Whar CJ and th others don't get, is that once this bill is passed why would a company keep their health care. They would pass it on to the goverment and once your insurance is gone your only option is the new publically funded health care program.
All of this will soon be moot at very best. A grand jury has charged Obama with treason and presentments are being handed out all over the country. The healthcare issue will die because he will be removed from office and new elections will be held within 90 days of his removal. The next President will be able to set the agenda. There has been a reason why Obama wants this pushed through so fast but he didn't make it.
Re illegals, if you removed all illegals from the equation, healthcare costs would not be affected because they represent such a small segment of the uninsured.
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Utter garbage. I think he might actually believe this though!
That left-wing propaganda machine is working extremely well on some very gullible people :-(
The greatest thing that could happen is to make all health care insurance illegal not even government insurance to be allowed. If this were to happen within a short time all health care prices would drop and instead of paying $22 dollars for one aspirin in a hospital you would pay 2 cents. Fear is what drives this industry. You people are so stupid that you can’t see the scam. You are paying this high monthly insurance bill and you pay a deductible to your doctor. The out of pocket expense you pay to your doctor is the deductible and you are giving the insurance company free money every month, how stupid can you be. People pay this large amount of free money to the insurance company because they are afraid they will lose everything if they have to go to the hospital. It’s this fear price cycle that drives the cost up. The government needs to investigate the health care insurance industry and the hospitals and it needs to fine and imprison people in this industry for price gouging or eliminate health insurance altogether.
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